In reference to the hell post: We (Aggies) hate being outscored by t.u. We love beating them. We love beating the hell out of them. The t-sips are our rivals. It is, no matter the respective records of the football teams, no matter the rankings, the "big game." The game against t.u. is in November.

There is another school in Texas for whom I could not care less. I have a long list of what we call them, but being a polite person, I will refrain. After all, we play them this week. It is an important game. A&M has had little success against them as of late. They are,however, not a rival. Even though they have kicked our little maroon butts to the curb lately, they still are not rivals.

I think for the remainder of the week, Jackson can say he wants to beat the hell outta' Texas Tech all he wants. Shout it at school for all I care.

Do I think we have a chance? Hahaha - I wake up every Saturday morning during football season guaranteeing an A&M win. Been a little wrong the last few years. But I still wake up and think today is a good day for an Aggie win. Maybe I will get it right this Saturday.

This household is an Aggie household. There is no doubt about it. We fly our Aggie flag during football season, have season football tickets, attend Muster, wear our Aggie rings, I could go on.

But the maroonness of our home was pointed out to me by a brief conversation with the Baby J. It went as follows, as he was riding his scooter in the driveway:

Jack: "Mom, I hope we beat the hell out of Texas*."

Mom: "Pardon me?"

Jack: "I said that I hope we beat the hell out of Texas this year. I hate losing to them."

This is out of the mouth of my non-competitive child. The one who enoys watching the band march as much as the football players.

I had to tell him that even though he heard the word hell plenty of times, and we had yelled it plenty of times in College Station, that word was not appropriate for him to be repeating. It must be saved for Aggie games and the correct time.

* If anyone who reads this (yes, all 3 of you) is not familiar (although 2 of you graduated from there, and one is the mother of another who did) with A&M, we have a yell that says, "Beat the Hell outta' current oppenent inserted here!" Jacskon has heard it since he was at his first Aggie game when he was 3 weeks old. He just has never stated it so emphatically along with the dislike of losing.

As an adjunct to that anecdote, there is another involving the Baby J and Hell. I was fixing dinner a month or so ago. He walks in, and nonchalantly and without malice asks, "What the hell is this?" As usual when I hear something I really don't want to hear out of my dear sweet baby's mouth, I said. "Pardon me? What did you say?" And he repeated, " I said, "What the Hell is this?"" Brief lecture from Mom followed, extolling the inappropriateness of his vocabulary selection.

Payne got another pig yesterday. I call her Rocky due to the black spots surrounding her eyes. Jill is keeping a pig here and got one yesterday too. So now there are three. Jill's would not cooperate for a picture this morning: no piggy butt shots, please.

Big decision today: countertop for the boys' bathroom. I thought I wanted black, like a science lab. Not what I want now. Probably going with "Fawn," the one on the bottom left.

I will be scrambling around the rest of the week: Bayfest is this weekend, fixing apple muffins for Jackson's class for apple day, taking Maddie (the calm dog) to school Friday afternoon for Pet Day, taking a friend to lunch for her birthday, finishing up the transfer of the office from the guest room to the real office, cleaning up the now soley-a-guest-room, working on the farm bank package, and preparing to be on crutches for a month starting next Tuesday. I guess I will sleep when I can't drive!

Busy weekend. Payne has a baseball scrimmage then we have an Odem football game tonight. Tomorrow is a quick trip to A&M. Payne finishes up the weekend with his baseball game. I hope we find time to check on Willbina!

And on a completely unrelated to succinct reports note, Grey's Anatomy starts up again tonight. I.cannot.wait. Well, I guess I can, somewhat. I have bunko tonight. So I can't wait til I get home from that.

Elvis is in the building. Well, technically her name is not Elvis, and the building is known around our house as Hog Heaven. But she is here.

Payne's first pig is Wilbina. He wanted to name his first pig Wilbur, but "he" is actually a "she," so Payne morphed the name. No pictures - I was at a meeting tonight when they brought her home. I am sure you will see many pics of her as she grows. We should get a couple of more pigs this week.

I guess I am living on a true farm (despite my attempts to the contrary) - dirt, chickens, and pigs plus some very big pieces of machinery painted John Deere green. How long until we have some bovine here at the house.....

And if you can't access the youtube site to watch the "Welcome to Aggieland" video, try this link. It is the A&M website. I told you it rocks. Go watch.